6.  The applicant was born in 1963 and lived in Donetsk.
7.  On 28 January 2003 the applicant sustained two knife cuts. According to him, they were inflicted by two strangers, who attacked him on a deserted street.
8.  At about 2 p.m. on 29 January 2003 the applicant was arrested at his home by three police officers and taken to the Proletarskiy District Police Station in Donetsk (“District Police Station”) for questioning in connection with a murder of L.S., an adolescent girl. Later on the same day he was also taken for questioning to the Proletarskiy District Prosecutor’s Office (“District Prosecutor’s Office”).
9.  On the same date O. was appointed as the applicant’s legal-aid lawyer. According to the applicant, she saw him briefly, advised him to remain silent and left him alone during the actual questioning.
10.  As follows from the report of the applicant’s questioning dated 29 January 2003 and countersigned by him and by his lawyer, he provided detailed information on his life and personal details, but refused to make any statement concerning the offence of which he was suspected.
11.  In the evening of 29 January 2003 an ambulance team was called to provide the applicant with medical assistance for his cuts. Upon its arrival at 7:30 p.m., the team recorded that the applicant had two cuts on his body and a flushed red face (лицо гиперемировано), that he was conscious, had normal blood pressure (120/80), was breathing freely, and that his general state was satisfactory. Having provided the applicant with first aid for his wounds, the ambulance team left at 7:55 p.m.
12.  On 30 January 2003 the applicant complained to the District Prosecutor’s Office of having been tortured by the police officers before and after having been brought to the police station. He noted, in particular, that the three police officers who had arrested him had severely beaten him all over his body, including in the groin area, notwithstanding that he was unable to resist his arrest in any event as he was suffering from two cuts sustained the previous day. Upon his arrival at the police station at about 3 p.m., several police officers had started torturing him with a view to extracting a confession from him. In particular, they had put plastic bags filled with cigarette smoke over his head, twisted his fingers, stepped on his hands with their feet, beaten him, punched him while pressing a book against his body and suspended him handcuffed face down between two desks. As a result, he had started to lose consciousness and had felt so unwell that an ambulance had to be called. However, according to the applicant, the ambulance team had not taken his complaints seriously and had omitted to record a number of injuries. Following the departure of the ambulance team, the applicant’s ill-treatment, according to him, continued until the morning of 30 January 2003.
13.  At about 3:30 p.m. on 30 January 2003 the applicant was examined by a forensic expert who had been asked to assess his injuries, to comment on their timing and the manner in which they had been inflicted, and to assess whether they could have been inflicted by the applicant’s own hand. The expert noted in his report that the applicant had suffered two cuts and some twelve surface injuries (scratches, abrasions, bruises, etc.) on the face and other parts of his body. He further noted that the applicant’s injuries cumulatively qualified as “minor”, that they had been inflicted as a result of the impact of blunt and sharpened objects within one to two days before the assessment and that their location was within the reach of the applicant’s own hand.
14.  On 31 January 2003 the Proletarskiy District Court (“District Court”) ordered the applicant’s detention for ten days pending the investigation against him. The applicant did not appeal against this decision.
15.  On 3 February 2003 the District Prosecutor’s Office refused to institute criminal proceedings regarding the applicant’s allegations of ill‑treatment by the police. It noted that according to the statements of the police officers who had been involved in his arrest and the police investigator in whose office he had been questioned, neither they, nor anyone else in their presence had beaten or otherwise ill-treated the applicant.
16.  On 7 February 2003 the applicant’s legal-aid lawyer O. was replaced by legal-aid lawyer K.
17.  On 7 February 2003 the District Court remanded the applicant in custody. The applicant, represented by lawyer K., did not appeal against this decision.
18.  On 8 February 2003 the applicant was placed in detention at the Donetsk pre-trial detention centre (SIZO).
19.  On numerous occasions the applicant complained to various authorities that for several days prior to his transfer to the SIZO he had been held in a cell with an inmate suffering from tuberculosis and that the decision of 3 February 2003 not to institute criminal proceedings regarding his ill-treatment on 29 January 2003 had been unfair. He also alleged that not all of his injuries had been recorded following the expert examination on 30 January 2003 and that on 4 March 2003 he had been groundlessly beaten by a convoy officer.
20.  In March 2003 investigator A.D. of the District Prosecutor’s Office, who was investigating L.S.’s murder and the theft from her flat organised confrontations between the applicant and several police officers implicated by him in his ill-treatment. During these confrontations, the officers denied that any ill-treatment had taken place. The applicant refused to comment claiming that A.D. had been rude, biased and insulting towards him.
21.  On 18 March 2003 the District Prosecutor’s Office again refused to institute criminal proceedings regarding the applicant’s allegations of ill‑treatment in January 2003. It noted that no evidence of ill-treatment had been discovered during the questioning of the officers involved and the confrontations between the parties. It further noted that according to the detention facility’s log book, the applicant had been detained alone and not with a sick inmate, as he had claimed.
22.  The applicant appealed against the aforementioned decision to the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office (“Regional Prosecutor’s Office”) and to other authorities, complaining, in particular, that the confrontations had been organised with a view to obtain self-incriminating evidence from him, rather than to verify his allegations of ill-treatment. He also complained that as a result of having been beaten by the police, he could no longer move his left leg properly.
23.  In March 2003 A.D. ordered a further forensic assessment of the applicant’s injuries, asking the expert, in particular, to comment on whether these injuries could have been inflicted by L.S. in the course of self-defence and whether any of the applicant’s injuries could be characteristic of an attempt to strangle or suffocate him. According to the results of this assessment, which was carried out on 15 and 16 April 2003, it was found possible that the injuries recorded on 30 January 2003 had been inflicted by L.S. in the course of self-defence. No injuries characteristic of strangling or suffocation could be identified.
24.  On 4 April 2003 the SIZO neurologist diagnosed the applicant as suffering from post-traumatic neuritis of the peroneal nerve.
25.  In April 2003 A.D. ordered a further expert assessment, requesting an opinion as to whether the applicant had indeed been suffering from post-traumatic neuritis, and, if so, when and as a result of which trauma it had developed. In particular, the expert was asked to comment on whether this condition could be connected to the injuries recorded on 30 January 2003.
26.  On 22 April 2003 the same expert who had conducted the previous assessments confirmed that the applicant was suffering from neuritis of the peroneal nerve, but that it was not possible to determine when and how it had developed.
27.  On the same date the District Prosecutor’s Office again refused to institute criminal proceedings regarding the applicant’s allegations of ill‑treatment by the police. It referred to the same arguments as in the previous refusals and to the findings of the expert assessment, according to which no probable connection between the applicant’s post-traumatic neuritis and his alleged ill-treatment in January 2003 could be established.
28.  The applicant appealed against this decision to the District Court and to other authorities, alleging that the investigation of his complaints had been formalistic and superficial, that he had been barred from putting questions to the expert and that the expert was himself biased.
29.  On 29 April 2003 the District Court rejected the applicant’s complaint. Subsequently (on 8 August 2003) the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal (the “Regional Court”) reviewed this decision and ordered joinder of the applicant’s complaint to the merits of the criminal case against him. The applicant’s further cassation appeal against this decision was left without examination on the ground that he had not rectified its procedural shortcomings. According to the applicant, he was not notified of this decision.
30.  According to the applicant, on 6 May 2003, while he was studying his criminal case file at the premises of the prosecutor’s office, investigator A.D. groundlessly hit him in the face. As a result of his blows, the applicant’s nose bled and stained his sweater, the surrounding furniture, and pages of the case file.
31.  On 7 May 2003 the applicant complained to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office that he had been hit by A.D., but received no response.
32.  On 16 May 2003 the applicant was escorted from the SIZO to the District Police Station for questioning and temporarily detained in the police detention facility. According to him, police officer V.D., who was on duty on that day, insulted him, punched him twice in the face and also kicked his back.
33.  On the same date upon the applicant’s return, the SIZO medical staff recorded that he was suffering from a contused wound on the lip, bruising of the soft tissues of the face and an abrasion on his back and forwarded the applicant’s complaints concerning V.D.’s conduct to the District Prosecutor’s Office for investigation.
34.  On 27 May 2003 the District Prosecutor’s Office refused to institute criminal proceedings regarding the incident of 16 May 2003. It noted that according to the statements given by V.D. and his colleague A.P., who had also been on duty on the relevant day, V.D. had never hit or insulted the applicant. Both officers had noted that the applicant had facial injuries upon his exit from the detention facility. They considered that those injuries had probably been caused by the applicant himself, while he had been in his cell, in order to harm the reputation of the duty officers. According to the applicant, he was never notified of this decision and continued complaining to various authorities that his allegations of ill-treatment had not been investigated.
35.  In the autumn of 2003 the applicant was committed to stand trial before the Regional Court on charges of having murdered L.S. and having stolen valuables from her flat.
36.  In November 2003 the applicant’s mother was admitted to the proceedings as his non-legal defender.
37.  On an unspecified date I. replaced K. as the applicant’s legal-aid lawyer.
38.  On 17 December 2003 the Regional Court questioned investigator A.D. concerning the circumstances in which the applicant’s criminal case-file had been stained by blood. During the hearing A.D. accepted that he was not sure about the origin of the bloodstains. He suggested that the file could have been stained by L.S.’s blood in January 2003 or by the applicant’s blood during the period when he was studying it, as he might have felt unwell and might have suffered a nosebleed.
39.  On 26 January 2004 the Regional Court remitted the applicant’s case for additional investigation. It instructed the investigative authorities, in particular, to conduct further inquiry into the applicant’s ill-treatment complaints and to determine the origin of the bloodstains on the case-file materials.
40.  On 9 July 2004 the Regional Prosecutor’s Office refused to institute criminal proceedings against A.D., finding the applicant’s complaints of having been beaten by him on 6 May 2003 to be unsubstantiated. It noted that according to A.D.’s own explanations given in 2004 and supported by his colleague A.K., on 6 May 2003 the applicant had scratched his nose until it bled in order to harm A.D.’s reputation. According to the applicant, this decision was only communicated to him in October 2004.
41.  On an unspecified date the case concerning L.S.’s murder and theft from her flat was remitted back to the Regional Court for trial.
42.  On 28 October 2004 the applicant appealed against the prosecutor’s office’s refusal to investigate his complaint concerning the incident of 6 May 2003 before the Regional Court, which was examining his criminal case. He noted, in particular, that no effort had ever been made to collect objective evidence or to examine the bloodstains. He also noted that A.D.’s statement given to the prosecutor’s office was at odds with his statement given to the court six months previously and that it was improbable that in giving his fresh statement he could better recall the relevant details.
43.  During the trial the Regional Court questioned numerous witnesses, including some of the officers implicated by the applicant in his alleged ill‑treatment and examined various sources of evidence, including the police reports concerning the discovery of the applicant’s fingerprints on the furniture in L.S.’s flat and of the bag with L.S.’s belongings in the building, where the applicant lived. The applicant alleged that the witnesses had collectively plotted against him and that the police officers had planted and falsified real evidence and had destroyed evidence indicative of his innocence. He further complained that his right to defence had been breached, in particular, as his first questioning took place without a lawyer and a number of case-file documents, including his questioning report of 29 January 2003, had been falsified.
44.  On 9 November 2004 the Regional Court convicted the applicant of having murdered L.S. and having stolen valuables from her flat and sentenced him to life imprisonment. It further found that the applicant’s allegations concerning the breach of his right to defence and his other procedural complaints were unsubstantiated and that the prosecutorial authorities had provided convincing explanations for rejecting his allegations of ill-treatment. As regards the applicant’s injuries recorded on 30 January 2003, they had in all likelihood been caused as a result of attempts by L.S. to defend herself from the applicant’s attack.
45.  The applicant and his legal-aid lawyer I. lodged cassation appeals against the judgment of 9 November 2004, alleging, in particular, that neither the Regional Court nor the prosecutor’s office had properly investigated allegations of the applicant’s ill-treatment, that his conviction had been based on assumptions and falsified evidence and that his procedural rights, including right to defence, had been breached.
46.  On 18 and 30 May 2005 the Regional Prosecutor’s Office informed the applicant in a letter that there was no basis for instituting criminal proceedings regarding his allegations of ill-treatment, as those allegations had already been examined and rejected as unsubstantiated.
47.  On 10 May 2005 the applicant was x-rayed and found to be suffering from tuberculosis.
48.  On 17 November 2005 the Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the applicant’s conviction and sentence. It found that the applicant’s ill‑treatment complaints had been thoroughly examined by the law-enforcement authorities and by the Regional Court and that these complaints had been correctly dismissed as unsubstantiated. It also found that there was no appearance of breaches of the applicant’s procedural rights which could have led to the proceedings as a whole being unfair and which would warrant the quashing of his sentence.
49.  In February 2007 the applicant was transferred from Donetsk SIZO to Ladyzhyn Colony to serve his sentence. According to him, this transfer was intended to make it more difficult for him to keep in contact with his mother and to correspond with his lawyer. Moreover, the Ladyzhyn Colony administration routinely read through, delayed or lost his correspondence and concealed a parcel with stationary and supplies in it which had been sent to him by his supporters, in order to impede his pursuing the Convention proceedings.
50.  On 22 March 2007 the applicant asked the Supreme Court of Ukraine to provide him with copies of various documents from his case file, including the transcript and audio-recordings of his trial, for their submission to the Court within the present application.
51.  On 24 May 2007 the applicant’s request was rejected.